From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Languages of Turkey |
| Official language |
Turkish |
| Main minority languages |
|
| Main immigrant languages |
|
| Main foreign languages |
English 17%, German 4%, French 1%Source:[1] |
The official language of Turkey is Turkish. Ethnologue lists the following minority languages: Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Armenian, Balkan Gagauz Turkish, Balkan Romani, Bulgarian, Crimean Turkish, Dimli, Domari, Georgian, Greek, Hértevin, Kabardian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kirmanjki, Kumyk, Ladino, Laz, North Mesopotamian Arabic, Northern Kurdish, Osetin, Pontic, Serbian, South Azerbaijani, Southern Uzbek, Tatar, Tosk Albanian, Turkish Sign language, Turkmen, Turoyo and Uyghur.
According to Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey:
| “ |
No language other than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens at any institutions of training or education. Foreign languages to be taught in institutions of training and education and the rules to be followed by schools conducting training and education in a foreign language shall be determined by law. The provisions of international treaties are reserved. |
” |
This provision has been criticized by Human Rights Watch who claim that ethnic minorities face restrictions in the use of their languages. They further observe that "the Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. But the government claims that these are Turkey's only minorities, and that any talk of minority rights beyond this is just separatism".[2]
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